First time post

[Norton wolf]

First time posting on any forum, mainly for fear of what people will think of me. Don't quite no where to start, I've never actually been diagnosed with any form of mental illness but have been in therapy many times the last of which finished last year.

I have suffered panic attacks for a number of years, however this has calmed down in last few years although I still get them sporadically. I suffer from anxiety and also have intrusive thoughts. I constantly think about dying mainly from cardiac arrest, my dad passed away suddenly aged 36 (I was 8) from cardiac arrest. I picture my own funeral most days, think about hanging myself although have no plans to do this as am petrified of dying. I have two kids and I'm constantly doing things like making sure they have same patterned plates for dinner as I think if the don't harm will come to them.

sorry I'm not the best at composing my thoughts and putting them into writing, I have many other thoughts but just wanted some advice on whether to seek help from gp to get diagnosis and whether my thoughts are typical of OCD?

 

 

 

[Dawnie]

Hi Norton Wolf

Firstly are u having any help in the form of GP/mental health practitioner for the above issues? It would be handy for a diagnosis so you know what you are dealing with. 

I cant diagnose anything but sounds like obsessional thoughts to me. These kind of thoughts are the exact opposite of how you see yourself so they don’t seem to fit in with who you are.

The fact that you are terrified of the thoughts dying/hanging yourself is not evidence of you wanting to do it. It is your mind replaying them over again to keep your attention on them. 

Normally with OCD there’s a pattern. 

Trigger  =something that gives you negative automatic thought

Intrusion = bad thought - going to hang myself! You can’t stop these thoughts. You can’t stop thoughts. 

Compulsion = what you do to make the anxiety better - thinking about it all day/ruminating. You can stop compulsion by doing a more helpful behaviour. 

If these are all present then could be OCD. If this is making your life hard then I would suggest GP referral so you can find out what you are dealing with. 

Hope this helps?

 

 

[Mike_Check]

You may have read/heard that something becomes an issue mentally when "It causes distress and interferes in your life on a regular basis" (or a variation of  that.)

They word it in such an open way is because a diagnosis is secondary to helping someone in distress. If this is stopping you living the life you want and causes distress definitely talk to your GP about it.